XRoad
by corn0000
Summary: Everybody has a cross-road in their lives. Some reach this point more than others. MSR Scully/Other?


Title: X-Road

Author: Corn0000

Email: eat.the.corn0000 AT gmail. com

Spoilers: Bits and pieces of "Movie 2" rumour- not much has actually been confirmed though!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in

no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Category: MSR / Possible Scully other

Rating: PG

Summary: Everyone comes to a cross road in their lives. Some reach this point more than once.

XXX

"Dr. Scully, we're needed in the operating room. We've got someone who's just been in a car accident and she's being prepped now. Sorry to cut short your coffee break."

It was 3am and I was resting in the hospital's sorry excuse for a cafeteria. All was deserted except for me, my lukewarm coffee and the surgical mask I had draped over my eyes in an attempt to create a moment of restful darkness.

I pried back a corner of the mask and opened one eye to see Mark Brodie, the brilliant neurosurgeon I had been paired with for many an operation since my days as a surgeon at the ridiculously named Sunnymile Emergency Hospital. Mark's a good looking man, I didn't need any of the nurses to tell me that, but they had felt it was their duty to anyway.

I smile to myself as I remembered their forewarnings;

"You think Dr. Brodie has amazing eyes now, wait until you see them crinkle at you during an operation when he's wearing his mask. It's enough to make you drop whatever instrument your holding."

"He's got a body chiseled out of stone, I often hand around after an operation just to see him bin his clothes."

"He's divorced and not an easy catch Dr. Scully, and I'm warning you others have been on the prowl for him for quite some time."

The last musing came from an older nurse who had befriended me from the start of my new job. Her name was Ally, and she always looked at me incredulously when ever I tried to explain what I used to do, a lifetime ago. Not only did she not believe my description of the Great Mutato, but she had rolled her eyes in exasperation when I told her my old partner's first name.

"Well you can't blame someone for what they're called!" I had tried to defend him as I always had. It still came so naturally to me.

Ally had a husband and two teenage monosyllabic kids. She somehow gave me a sense of how I could have ended up, had I made different life decisions all those years ago. I don't know if it was for that reason, but I had always felt compelled towards her and in return for her friendship I knew she kept my name out of the hospital rumour mill as much as was possible.

I brought myself back to the present with a grimaced sip of my pale coffee.

"Dr. Brodie, you really know how to ruin a moment. Weren't you going home three hours ago?" I replied to his tired yet always gentle stare.

He rubbed his hands over his face and back over his curly blonde hair as he took a deep breath. He looked like he really didn't want to be at work still, yet here he was. I thought back to Mulder at home and knew exactly how he felt.

"I was," he finally started, "but you know how it is with school holiday week. Anyway, I knew you were working a late one and couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch-up over a new lung."

"When you said you had a dinner craving for ribs the other night, this wasn't what I had in mind," I said.

It was a lame comment and we both knew it, but at 3am and perhaps for another reason, he humoured me with a chuckle before tugging on my sleeve and nodding to the dreaded theatre. I stood up slowly, not without a few embarrassing cracks of my back reminding me that time goes on and no one's body can combat that phenomena.

He looked at me sympathetically before he spoke again, "I promise you another coffee afterwards. If anything's cooking here, you may even be lucky enough to get some dinner-slash-breakfast out of me"

My stomach rumbled loudly in response and we both laughed as I clutched an arm around my midriff. "On that note," he continued, "Let's just go out to the coffee shop down the road. They'll definitely be open and you won't be able to hold me for making empty promises. Also, their food won't look like something we just operated on."

"You're selling it to me," I said dryly to him.

He grinned in response and with his hand gently on my shoulder, he turned me towards the door.

Always the gentleman he held out his arm, "After you Dana."

XXX

"Agent Mulder, you know I can't authorise this."

Skinner's voice cut through the haze in my head from a pounding headache that I couldn't shift. This was all too familiar- it really was.

"I realise this assignment isn't technically part of the deal sir, but I think it has some relevance to... profiling... a potential killer..."

"That is 8ft tall, lives in the unlivable Antarctic and eats human beings," Skinner finished for me not without some laughter glinting in his eyes.

He was humouring me, and I knew it was futile but I nodded anyway. It had been five years since I'd been back in the FBI. I was profiling now and trying to interest myself with something that had once fascinated me. I don't know why or who was still alive (and possibly related to me) in the higher consortium, but somewhere behind closed doors a deal was struck to clear my name in return for my efforts again at the Bureau. Needless to say I took the deal, for myself and for Scully, who after a year of hiding together was getting antsy for something to do again. And so was I.

Don't get me wrong, our time together was like an extended honeymoon. After our time apart with me in hiding, it was the best and only thing I could have wished for. But just as she was never a housewife, nor could I be househusband and we needed some semblance of our lives back. I think she summed it up one day when she turned to me in one of our many motel rooms and said, "We need to try normality Mulder. We've avoided it for so long."

This deal had been a godsend, and to this day I don't know just how much I owe it to the man sitting in front of me.

Skinner gave me a look that took me back to a time before normality. His jaw was working overtime on an invisible piece of gum and I could see the cogs turning in his head trying to find a way to get through to me. We both knew whatever he would say would be futile, but I think he too got the sense that he was in 1999 and there was a petite red head sitting beside me.

"There are no X-Files anymore Mulder. You came in here and knew I wouldn't sign off on this," he eventually said quietly.

I know. I knew. I just saw the tabloid story, made a few phone calls and...

I stood up nodding and started to head to the door, "I know sir. I just thought I'd try to do this officially."

As I opened the door Skinner called out to me, "Agent Mulder."

I stopped and turned around to face him patiently.

"You know you're an agent on your own now. She won't come back to the bureau and she can't help you on a case," Skinner said.

I nodded before replying quietly, "I know sir. I'm reminded of that everyday."

I turned to let myself out of his office and made my way back to the 6th floor.

XXX

I arrived home at 7am to find Mulder in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of orange juice to accompany his cereal. He stopped and came over to me before I could even put my bag down.

"Hey, there you are," he said leaning in for a quick kiss. "You look exhausted, can I get you something to eat?"

I broke away from his embrace to look at him warmly. "Thank you but I just want a shower and a nap. These emergency shifts are killing me."

I hadn't meant anything by that remark but he winced anyway. As usual, I ignored it.

"Let me run you a bath while you get out of your clothes; your muscles will appreciate it," he offered as he began to kneed at the muscles around my neck.

I smiled at how good my impromptu massage felt and closed my eyes contentedly, "You're good to me Mulder." I think I actually purred that sentence.

I took a breath and tried to speak normally, "How was your day yesterday? Did you made the world a little bit safer?"

He paused for a second before he dropped his hands to my waist. He gave me another chaste kiss before he headed to the bathroom. Over the sudden rush of running water I heard him call out, "I had a meeting with Skinner yesterday, trying to get his approval."

I hung up my coat and tucked my hand bag away before calling out, "Approval? For what?"

I rolled down my stockings as Mulder emerged into the lounge room again. He leaned against the wall and watched me for a moment before he spoke.

"For an X-File."

I simply looked at him with stockings in hand and said nothing. It had been so long since that life and I thought it was something behind us, in our past. I thought we had moved on to another part of our lives.

"Scully?" he looked at me questioningly.

"I'm just surprised Mulder. It's been so long since that word has crossed your lips," I replied.

He shrugged at me as if to say it wasn't his fault, and that he knew how everyone would react to him. He opened his mouth to speak, then obviously thought better of what he had to say and closed it again.

Then I realised, that life wasn't full of chapters that started and ended when a new number graced the page. The X-Files would always be part of Mulder just as I would. Only we're different to him now. The X-Files, once an obsession can be something he pursues as well as work- as well as a normal life. It's grown into a side project instead of his life's consumption. And while I am still by his side, I'm no longer merely a consulting agent, but a lover and protector, and someone for him to come home to at night. Things were different now. Somewhere along the way, I have usurped the X-Files within him, and he knew that as well. I think it frightened him more than he was ever likely to admit.

I sighed softly with a smile on my lips before I walked past him into the bathroom, pulling my hair out of its ponytail along the way, "Bring in a chair Mulder and tell me about it. For a first X-File in six years, there had better be a fair amount of slime involved."

As I entered the bathroom, I glanced over my shoulder and saw a grin spread on his face as he followed me in.

Even though I couldn't dedicate all of my time to my X-File, I was able to spend a surprisingly vast number of hours out of the office and therefore a vast number of hours not profiling. Not that I really minded the work, but it wasn't as challenging as it had once been and work just wasn't as... pleasurable as it had once been. Even though it had been years since we had worked together, everyday I was still half-expectant to bump into Scully in the hallways of the FBI or to hear her voice from behind me as she talked through the facts on a particular case.

Instead I was in an open plan office full of middle-aged men who could only talk about the Knicks outside of work.

"Hey Spook," a deep voice called out from across the room. Yes, even after years out of the X-Files the endearing name has stuck with me. I was only ever "Agent Mulder" when I was working on a serious case. All other times it was Spook, Spooky, or lately and particularly my favourite "Mr. Doc". It was actually quite refreshing being referred to not by my unwavering interest in the unknown, but for a beautiful woman's continued interest in me.

As if reading where my train of thought had travelled, Agent Brown or Smith (the only names I assigned to people in this department of laughs) continued his attempt at cross-room conversation. "There's a game on this week-end and I got a few buddies coming over to watch it. You free at all, or has the Doc got you pinned down for domestic duties?"

There was a snicker from another part of the room which made me smile. The offer was genuinely made, but given the choice of spending my spare time with non-descript FBI agents or the woman I loved and had been chomping at the bit for, for years it was a easy decision.

"Thanks for the offer," I called out loudly. "But you're right, I have a scheduled colonoscopy with her on Saturday night that just won't wait."

Agent Brown/Smith laughed once and waved his hand at me good naturedly. "Ok Mr. Doc. But if you get a sudden feeling of relief, before Saturday, let me know."

I nodded with a smile and turned back to my desk. I picked up a nondescript beige file and opened it to the gruesome picture inside. The photo was of a man lying on the ice in the frigid climate of the Antartic. At first glance, it looked like he had fallen down a 10 metre icy cliff and badly injured himself. Upon closer inspection however, the blood oozing out of the numerous gashes to his body looked particularly fresh, and the icy landscape was flat for miles. So what ever had happened to him, had happened right there where he was laying. Also, the right half of his snow jacket looked like it had been shredded into five roughly equal sections. I put my hand up to the picture and spread my fingers along each rip. A hand twice a big as mine would have been perfect for performing this kind of damage.

I picked up the phone on my desk and dialed a now familiar number. I had been trying to contact the last tourist who had survived an attack from what his wife had called "a monster". He was the man in this picture.

"Sunnymile Hospital Admissions, how may I help?" the chirpy voice answered the phone.

"Hi, this is Agent Fox Mulder of the FBI again, I was wondering if there was any further information on Mr. Martin Canning. He was admitted a week ago and has been in a coma ever since," I sat up straighter in a useless attempt to turn my back on the others in the office.

"Please hold Agent Mulder, I need to pull up his record."

I grabbed a stress ball that had somehow made it's own way to my desk and waited. Martin Canning's wife had been with him at the time of the attack, and raised the alarm with regards to her husband's condition. Unfortunately, no one at the police station knew what to make of her statement that a tall creature with matted hair all over his body had apparently come out of nowhere and attacked them. It would have indeed needed to come out of nowhere, I mused to myself as I flicked through the photos of the crime scene, not even seeing a small bump on the ground for someone to hide behind.

"Agent Mulder?" the chirpy voice returned in my left ear startling me. "Mr. Canning has recently regained consciousness, but the doctors are concerned about elevating his heart rate in his current condition. They have requested that all questioning be delayed as long as possible."

I tried to reassure her, "No I understand. His wife contacted me initially though as she witnessed the attack on him. I'll be there merely to take his statement and he can have his wife present should that make him more comfortable. It will be a ten minute meeting maximum," I cut myself short before I started promising too much on the phone.

"Oh ok Mr. Mulder. Well as you know we can't stop you coming down here, but your minimal questioning would be appreciated."

"Not a problem, I'll be there this afternoon," I hung up the phone in restrained excitement and grabbed my coat.

XXX

I sat in my office trying to finish off my reports when I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in," I called out without looking up from my sea of papers.

"Hi," Mark walked in and slouched onto the small couch on the side of my office. He rolled his head to one side of his shoulder and looked at me from behind his unruly curls.

I smiled, sat back in my chair and slowly took off my reading glasses. "Hi yourself. What can I do for you?" I asked.

"It's lonely in my office. I need 5 minutes of unrelated bureaucratic chat otherwise I'm going to go crazy," he replied lazily.

I nodded without focusing on him. "Chat... Did you come armed with a topic at all?" I realised then just how much of all our previous conversation revolved around work and not much else.

"Yes," he paused as he obviously hadn't thought that far ahead. "What's your favourite pizza topping?" he finally fired at me.

I stopped for a second, "Margharita. Yours?"

"You can't go past Supreme. When was the last time you went to the beach?" he asked with a grin.

I raised my eyebrows as I tried to think back. "Um, you know... I can't remember. I used to go a lot during med school. A group of us would go at every holiday opportunity actually. That was a long time ago though. A very long time. It was a lot of fun being that carefree," I replied thoughtfully.

He patted the other side of the couch and nodded his head for me to come over. "I feel like I'm getting to know my teacher with you behind a desk. Abandon your forest of work for a second and put your feet up here; I promise I bathed thoroughly this morning."

I looked at him lounging on my poor excuese for a visitor's couch and without helping myself a small smile played at my lips at his welcoming gesture. I stood up from behind my desk and walked around to where he sat.

"So you haven't been sporting a proper tan for a number of years," he continued with our thread of conversation- sorry, "chat". "Sounds like you used to really enjoy going, why have you stopped?"

I kicked my shoes off and placed my feet on the coffee table as I thought about his question and what, if anything, he was trying to imply. "I don't know. I used to go to the movies often too but haven't been for longer than I can remember," I sighed. "Life..." I trailed off.

I wasn't sure where I was going with my thoughts. Hell, I wasn't sure where he was going with our conversation.

He was nodding with an unfocused stare fixed at my feet as I grappled with my thoughts. He finally spoke, "Yeah, it's hard to fit as much leisure time in these days. I used to be the same and go out to concerts often, or go hiking. Now though, even when I get time to do any of these things I just pass up the opportunity. I'm afraid I've gotten lazy."

"You put in 70 hours last week, you're far from lazy," I assured him laughingly.

"Mmm," he said turning to look at me. We smiled at each other and shared a look of understanding. Somehow during our empathy with each other, our gaze locked. My heart began to beat a little faster under his warm brown eyes and after a second too long of this indulgent feeling I tore my gaze away and looked at anything else in the room. I tried to lower my heart rate as I began to feel embarrassed at my reaction to him.

"You're beautiful Dana," I heard him whisper the words but I still couldn't look at him.

I tried to quickly rationalise to myself that a spark of attraction between two people who spent so much time together was inevitable and not something that could always be helped. But a wave of confusion still flooded through me and I could feel my face start to burn.

He looked at me silently as I stood up and walked back to my desk. I took up my glasses again without looking at him and picked up a random piece of paper.

"I need to get back to work," I offered as some sort of apology, though I wasn't sure for what.

I finally met his eyes again and saw him give me a small smile as he stood up and made his way to the door of my office. He turned the handle before he stopped and turned back to look at me with an indistinguishable look on his face, "If you want some help with any of that," he made a wide gesture at the almost laughable pile of papers on my desk, "I can look at any joint patients we've worked on. Just bring everything over to my office in a file this afternoon if you like. We can talk it over."

"Thank you," I replied, my voice matching his.

He gave a little wave before he left the office, and looked at me one more time as the door closed behind him.

XXX

As I walked up the stairs to the hospital entrance, it struck me how strange it was that I had only been here a few times to visit Scully. I'm sure she enjoyed and i dare say needed the space from me, but I still felt a bit sad that we no longer saw each other half as much as we used to. I would surprise her in her office today though. The thought of seeing her warmed me and I smiled as I made my way to the admissions desk.

There were two nurses behind the counter, one a young brunette who looked like she hadn't been a year out of university, and the other a much older nurse who was flicking through a magazine in what seemed to be an attempt to cut the conversation between them. They both looked up at me as I approached them.

"Hi I called ahead from the FBI," I held my badge out for the younger nurse to inspect. "I'm here to see Mr. Martin Canning, I was told he has just recovered consciousness."

The younger nurse nodded and attached some papers to a clipboard. "Sure, if you could just fill out this visitor record form, I'll just go to look up his current room number.

I took the forms and began filling them out at the desk while the young nurse returned to where her friend was sitting. She pulled a yellowed keyboard towards herself and began typing on an ancient computer. She was indifferent to the older nurse's preoccupation with the latest TV Guide listings and tried to pick up their conversation again, "Ally you know I'm right. He's got a thing for her but I really think because he's been so hurt before he won't do anything about it. All of the nurses are so jealous."

Ah the office mill. Something to dog the innocent of any occupation. I smirked at the poor people being targeted- I knew how they felt.

The nurse now identified as Ally looked up from her magazine and sighed, "Look, there will never be anything between Mark and Dana I can tell you that now. Whatever his feelings are, they are none of our business."

My ears pricked at the sound of Dana's name and for a split second I conjured up the image of Scully in my head. I idly began to wonder how many more Danas were working in the hospital with her.

The younger nurse looked at the older nurse, "I know, I know it's bad to gossip, but it's just so interesting you know. Especially when Dr. Brodie is so dreamy. I personally think Dr. Scully is a good match for him. They're together often enough for some sort of chemistry to be there. You know how it can be for people who work together and spend so much time together. She'd have to have no pulse not to find him the least bit attractive. I know she's got a boyfriend and all, but he'd be no Dr. Brodie."

I stopped. I just stopped. I stopped writing, stopped focusing on the page, I think I stopped breathing for a second. I couldn't even begin to process their conversation and I traced back in my memory for any mention Scully has made of a Dr. Brodie. My mind ticked back chronologically and methodically and all I could remember was us at dinner a couple of weeks ago.

"I'm lucky Mulder," Scully has started while taking a sip of her wine. "I'm often paired with Mark Brodie in the O.R. and it just makes my job that bit easier when the person you're working with is so competent."

"A nice change huh Scully?" I had replied.

She had looked at me from across the table, and almost glowed in the dim lighting.

"No one beats you as a partner Mulder."

I had felt so warm then towards her then, but of course I had no idea that this doctor could have been in love with her. A sudden sinking feeling hit me as I began to wander if she shared his feelings. Was she really attracted to someone else? How on earth was I going to do anything about a man she spent all day and hell, lately all night with? My palms began to feel sweaty, and all I wanted to do was see her. To reassure myself that office gossip was just what it was. And to reassure myself that I was and always would be more to her than just some "boyfriend" unable to compete with George Clooney in the ER.

I handed the forms back to the young nurse who had seemed to have forgotten I was there.

"Oh yeah, Mr. Canning is in room 549," she informed me as she took the clipboard beck from me.

I nodded my thanks and went straight to Scully's office.

XXX

I was still a bit shocked at what had or hadn't just happened. I couldn't believe my reaction to Mark when, after all this time I was finally with the man I had loved for so long. No doubt Mark was attractive and I got the sense that he liked me well enough, but he wasn't Mulder. He wasn't the man who had literally gone to the ends of the earth for me and risked everything for my life time and time again. Mulder was the man who sent a shiver down my spine whenever he would look at me with a smile of discovery whenever I gave him an answer he didn't expect. Mulder was my life partner.

So why was I compiling various unfinished reports into a file to take to Mark's office this afternoon?

In instances of confusion I did what I did best and threw myself into my work, blocking out the world around me. I became so engrossed in a file on a broken leg that I didn't realise someone was in my office unitl I looked up to see them at the foot of my desk.

"Mulder!" I started. "You scared me."

His face seemed to be weary as he asked, "Were you expecting someone else?"

"No, of course not." I replied quickly. "I just didn't hear anyone come in. I'm glad to see you, it's been awhile since your last visit to the hospital."

His shoulders seemed to relax a little and he offered me a small smile, "I'm glad to see you too. Come here." He opened his arms.

I went willingly and kissed him as I wrapped my arms around his waist. He held me a little tighter than usual and I looked at him inquisitively.

"So what really brings you here Mulder. I know it's got to be more than an overwhelming desire to see me before we get home tonight," I asked.

He looked at me with a tinge of sadness in his eyes as he reached into his overcoat and pulled out a creased file that looked like it had been thumbed through on numerous occasions. He handed the file to me and I opened it.

"It's the X-File," he explained. "Martin Canning, the guy I told you about last night is here in this hospital. I'm going to see him now to see what his take on the monster attack is. If you've got a moment you should come with me. I'd like to have you by my side again."

"Mulder," I paused not knowing how to explain myself. "Not only am I no longer on the X-Files, I'm not even in the FBI anymore. It would look like I'm trading on some other doctor's toes if I were found to be there with you- he's not my patient." I said all of this while becoming more and more engrossed with the pictures on file.

"And besides," I continued finally looking up, "I've got to get through all this by tonight," I gestured to my desk which was rather timely as the file I had been preparing for Mark slipped off the top of my heap of paper and slid to the floor, scattering all the pages within.

I sighed and looked at it as Mulder shook his head in a way that meant it was ok if I didn't come with him. He walked past me and began to collate the fallen pages back into the folder before placing it on my desk. He then came back and took the crumpled X-File from my hands and placed it next the the folder her had just tidied.

"It's ok Scully, I don't expect you to drop everything for this. I'll come by after I speak to Mr Canning and we can talk about the case or not talk about the case over a coffee somewhere. You know I'm going to ask for your opinion on this because I need you and I need your expertise. But that doesn't mean I expect you to get fully involved again- it's entirely up to you," Mulder said watching me the whole time.

I met his gaze and began to feel ok again. He came towards me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

"I'll leave the file there for now in case you do get a chance to look over it, but otherwise I'll just come and get it off you in a few minutes when I done with questioning," he finished.

I nodded and he kissed my forehead before he walked out of the office. I stood motionless for a few seconds before walking back to my desk where the two files lay. I placed one hand on Mark's file and my other hand on the X-File. I pressed my weight forwards onto the desk as I let a rush of air pass from my lips.

Things haven't always been clear in my life, and they certainly weren't starting to become so now. But I've always stood by the decisions I had made in my past and I would continue to do so. That was my strength, and I took comfort in that.

My decision was made before Mulder had come in. I straightened my back and picked up the file under my right hand. Tucking it under my arm, I switched the light off in my office and stepped out the door.

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